Swagbucks Review: What Is It, How Does It Work And What Can You Win?

Now that Swagbucks just celebrated their tenth birthday, more and more people are learning about this reputable company (which has earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau) that helps you earn free gift cards, cash and prizes.

Chances are, when you learn more about this company, you’ll become a Swagbucks enthusiast like me!

What Is Swagbucks? Is Swagbucks Safe? Is It A Scam?

Swagbucks is a cash back site and Internet search engine much like Yahoo! or Bing. The difference is that you get paid for searching the Internet and doing a host of other activities, if you choose to.

I know, on first blush it sounds like a scam, but this is a legitimate website. I've been using them for some time now and I have gotten my rewards multiple times. So I can assure you that it isn’t a scam.

If you engage in point earning activities on their site, you will be able to redeem your points for whatever reward you end up choosing.

If you do nothing more than search the Internet a few times a day (and don’t we all do that?), you could easily earn 7 to 10 points called SB a day.

Earn 300 SB (which is possible in 3 to 5 weeks with minimal effort), and you could redeem your points for a $3 Amazon gift card.

In general, every 100 SB earns you a $1 toward an Amazon gift card. 300 SB for $3 Amazon gift card, or 500 SB for a $5 Amazon gift card. However, you can earn a $25 Amazon gift card for just 2,200 SB points!

How To Sign Up For Swagbucks

Signing up for Swagbucks is simple.

Simply go to the Swagbuck’s page and either sign in with Facebook, or fill out a simple form with your e-mail address and a password that you choose for your Swagbucks account.

Registration is free, and right now you'll eligible to get a $5 bonus for signing up!

Once you are signed up, make sure you stay signed in so you can use Swagbucks to search the Internet and earn points.

How To Earn SB

There are many ways to earn SB. If you use it to search the Internet, you will randomly earn points. I have earned anywhere from 7 to 79 points at one time. Those points continue to accrue until you redeem them for your rewards.

In addition to searching the Internet, there are many other ways to earn points:

Watch television programming. Like to find new recipes? Watch the Food Network videos. Or watch videos streamed right from Hulu as well as clips on news (regular and celebrity), tech, etc. on Swagbucks and earn SB points. (They have many quick two to three minute shows that you can watch to earn points.)

Encourage your friends to join. If your friends sign up for Swagbucks with your referral link, you will get 10% of their Swagbucks earning for life! This can be a great way to watch your balance grow with minimal effort on your part, especially if you have several friends join.

Use coupons. If you routinely print coupons off the Internet, print them from Swagbucks. For every coupon you redeem at the grocery store, you earn 10 SB

Take a poll. There are usually short, one question polls that you can answer. This takes less than 10 seconds, and you can earn a SB point.

Meet your daily Swagbucks goal. Every day, Swagbucks sets an earning goal for you. For instance, they may set a goal of earning 30 SB. If you’re able to do that, say for 7 days in a row, you’ll earn an additional 25 SB.

Play games. You can play a variety of games in the games section to earn SB.

Use the special offers section. This section isn’t something I’d use just to get SB (though some people do), but it can be a great way to earn SB points on something you were already going to do. For instance, if you were going to sign up for a Target Red Debit or Credit Card anyway, why not do it through Swagbucks and earn 215 SB points?

This section is Swagbucks highest earning vertical. There are plenty of special offers to choose from.

These are just a few ways to earn rewards; there are many more, some more labor intensive than others.

I usually just have time for the polls and searching the Internet, and I still earned enough in a year to redeem for Amazon gift cards and get a few presents for my kids at Christmas.

Swagbucks Browser Extension

Swagbucks has a browser extension that you can install in your browser as well.

In my Chrome browser I have it installed and it will notify you when there is cash back available for a store you're shopping at. Just click on the button that pops up to activate the cash back, and a short while after you complete your purchase the SB will be added to your account.

It also will tell you when there are coupon codes available at a certain store and apply them for you, saving you additional money!

What it comes down to is adding the extension will likely save you quite a bit of money! It takes the work out of remembering to go to a cash back site – it does it for you automatically.

Swagbucks Hack To Triple Your Savings

Her's a hack that I have started using in order to triple my savings when shopping online. I use Swagbucks in conjunction with two other providers, Honey and Gift Card Granny.

Here's how it works.

Activate Swagbucks cash back: First, go to the shopping site where you want to save money. Activate your Swabgucks cash back via your browser extension. It should pop up automatically if you have it installed and ask you to “activate cash back”.

Use Honey to get a coupon code: After you find the item you wanted to buy, add it to your cart and begin the checkout process. On the checkout page where they have a space for coupon codes, use the Honey browser extension to search for available coupon codes, to save you more money!

Buy a discounted gift card from Gift Card Granny: Figure out your order's total, and then buy a gift card at Gift Card Granny to cover the cost. You can often find gift cards for popular retailers at a big discount. For example, a $100 gift card for $85. Purchase the gift card and use it when checking out.

When you do these three things, you'll save using Swagbucks cash back, by using a Honey coupon code, and by getting a discount on a gift card to pay for your order. Triple the savings!

How Much Can You Earn With Swagbucks?

Once you've earned enough points you can redeem your SB for an Amazon gift card, but there are hundreds of other ways to also redeem your points. Choose from a wide range of retailers—Amazon, Target, Lands End, Chili’s, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Walmart, Sears, and many more.

There are hundreds of prizes to choose from, and if you want to make your SB points stretch further, look for the sale category where they temporarily discount how many SB certain items can be redeemed for.

They say that nothing in life is free, but if you search the Internet using Swagbucks, utilize the cash back tools and engage on their site you will earn enough SB points to redeem for some nice free gifts.

Have you used Swagbucks? If so, what have you earned?

If you use promo code “BMONEYMATTERS” when you register you’ll get an extra 70 SB.

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Last Edited: 19th November 2018 The content of biblemoneymatters.com is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Visitors to biblemoneymatters.com should not act upon the content or information without first seeking appropriate professional advice. In accordance with the latest FTC guidelines, we declare that we have a financial relationship with every company mentioned on this site.

About Melissa

Melissa, a mom to three (ages 14, 9, and 8), blogs at Mom's Plans where she writes about homeschooling, health eating, frugal living, and paying down debt. She works as a freelance writer and virtual assistant.

Comments

I’ve been using Swagbucks since September of last year and make an average of $50 per month just running videos on my Android at work (126 points per day) and occasionally searching the Internet. You can redeem your points for cash through Paypal once you hit 2500 points/$25.

I forgot to mention that by hitting my daily goal I earn an add’l 600 points each month. The catch for these points is to not miss a day during the month. As mentioned above, you receive 25 points for hitting your daily goal for a week, 100 points for 14 days, 200 points for 21 days and 300 points for a whole month. These points are in addition to the daily points you earn for reaching your goal which average around 9 points per day.

I just read your post about Swagbucks. I joined just the other day. And I was hoping you could help me figure out something about the special offers. I thought all I needed to do was, for example, sign up for a free trial with ESPN, Amazon Prime Pantry, etc. and be credited with the amount of swagbucks listed for that offer.

I’ll stay with the ESPN free trial. It’s for 7 days, and the award was 400SB. Those points were not credited to my account. I signed up for about 6 or 7 free trials, and was not credited for any of them.

I’m confused because I thought that the swagbucks are awarded immediately after signed up for the offer.

Amy, not sure if Melissa has seen your comment, but I’ll try to answer. From the Swagbucks FAQ:

Typically, it can take up to 2-7 business days for the purchase to appear as “Pending” in the Shop & Earn “Purchases” tab. Once pending, it can take anywhere from 32-92 days from the date of your purchase for your SB to be awarded. If you do not see your purchase pending, please wait at least 32 days before contacting our support team. Unfortunately, orders placed over 180 days from the time of purchase cannot be further investigated with the affiliate merchant.

So the answer is, it varies how long it takes for the points to be awarded. I personally have seen it take quite a few days, especially when signing up for third party offers versus shopping/etc. Some of those offers have additional criteria that need to be met before the points are awarded. You can view what has been awarded here: https://www.swagbucks.com/account/shop-ledger . But if you have not seen the points awarded by 32 days, you may want to contact the support team.

The information contained in BibleMoneyMatters.com is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with some of the companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways.

Any references to third party products, rates, or websites are subject to change without notice. We do our best to maintain current information, but due to the rapidly changing environment, some information may have changed since it was published. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers.